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Rupa-vilasa: We were spending a little time with Prabhupada’s God-brother Krsna das Babaji Maharaj with whom he had a very affectionate relationship.
He was telling us the story of Prabhupada’s taking sannyas and he said,
“The ceremony was going on. With Kesava Maharaj overseeing and conducting the initiation, Narayana Maharaj was chanting the mantras and I was doing bhajan. But as is my habit I got a little too loud.
“So Kesava Maharaj was making a gesture with his hand palm down as if to say,

Purushottam Nitai Das: We are so serious, so enthusiastic and so happy when we are just about to receive the beads from our spiritual master during the initiation ceremony. We promise to ourselves that as soon as we will get the beads we will chant not just 16 rounds but many more rounds with utmost sincerity, will follow the 4 regulative principles not just carefully but with extraordinary determination and with extraordinary zeal will serve the mission of Srila Prabhupada.
And in fact, for fe

By Malati Devi Dasi

The 40th Anniversary of the ISKCON Juhu Epic is being celebrated with great enthusiasm with legions of Srila Prabhupada’s personal pioneers who have arrived to Radha Rasabihariji’s campus to honor and recall the glories of this maha adventure of serving Srila Prabhupada in Bombay. What to speak of the incredible darshans of Their Divine Lordships. All glories to Srila Prabhupada, our Lord and Master, His Divine Grace!
Streamed live 22 hours ago
Evening Venue: Jamnabai Narsee

“Parikrama is a revival of Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu’s pastimes.”

– His Holiness Lokanatha Swami

Since its inception by His Divine Grace Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Thakura Prabhupada in 1918, the Gaudiya Vaisnavas have been performing parikrama around Sri Navadvipa Mandala. 2018 will mark the one hundred year anniversary of performing Sri Navadvipa Mandala Parikrama.

In 1972, Srila Prabhupada and some of his disciples went on parikrama around Sri Navadvipa Dham, and since that time ISKCON M

By Yasodadulal Dasa

“Sense gratification is just like salt.  One cannot take too much or too little but one must take some salt in order to make one’s foodstuffs palatable.”  (Srila Prabhupada SB 3.15.8)

Retracing the steps of Mahatma Gandhi during his famous 1930 Dandi Salt Walk

“In 1930 Mohandas K. Gandhi marched on to the world stage with his non violent message to an international audience.  His simple act of civil disobedience that defied British rule set India as a nation ablaze with the

Significance:

1. The Puranas say that on this day Sun visits the house of his son Shani, who is the swami of Makar Rashi. These father & son do not ordinarily get along nicely, but inspite of any difference between each other Lord Sun makes it a point to meet each other on this day. Father in fact himself comes to his son’s house, for a month. This day symbolized the importance of special relationship of father & son. It is the son who has the responsibility to carry forward his fathers dream and

The new year marks the organisational start of the Vyasa-puja & Kingsday festivals. In April 2018 we will again meet for two wonderful festivals and, of course, the mega harinama in Amsterdam during the Kingsday celebrations. You are again invited to join the party! Reserve your tickets and plan a trip to Radhadesh. Read more info on the official VP pages.

Don’t want to miss any news? Join the Vyasa-puja/Kingsday Newsletter

Festival dates

Join us from 26-30 April 2018 in Radhadesh. The Kingsday

By Madhava Smullen

Until recently in the UK, ISKCON devotees still felt burned out from the old days of authoritarian book distribution programs, where they had been pushed to go out for three-month-long Christmas marathons.

So when Visvambhara Das was named book distribution minister for the UK in 2004, he focused on building a mood of teamwork and devotee care. The marathon was made just three weeks long, and an emphasis was put on making sure book distributors had good prasadam, warm clothes

By Hari Narayana das

Singaraja, known for its beautiful beaches and picturesque sites of natural wonders, is also the most important education hub in Bali, Indonesia. The Hare Krsna Centre or ISKCON at Banyuning, Singaraja or more affectionately called by the devotees there as Sri Radha Gopisvara temple, is unbelievably vibrant considering its small area and very small number of devotees. The main ornament of this centre is the group of very enthusiastic young boys and girls who never miss to c

By Shrutadev Das

In response to Niranjana Swami’s blog posted on Dandavats.com
 
Dear Niranjana Swami,
 
Please accept my humble obeisances.  All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
 
I have read your blog on reading about Srila Prabhupada which was posted on Dandavats.com and I can’t tell you how overjoyed I was to read it.  Ever since the Srila Prabhupada Lilamrta was printed, I had gotten into the habit of reading a few pages every morning before I would start chanting my japa; something that I hav

It’s no secret that Srila Prabhupada wants the devotees to develop rural communities where they produce their necessities while centering their lives around Krsna.  That concept is right in the original articles of incorporation for ISKCON, purpose #6:  “To bring the members closer together for the purpose of teaching a simpler, more natural way of life.”  Indeed one of the first things that Srila Prabhupada did after starting his movement was to establish the first farm community, New Vrndavana

By Madhava Smullen

On January 20th, senior Prabhupada disciple Yogesvara Dasa is bringing “Here Comes the Sun: A Musical and Spiritual Tribute to George Harrison” back to the Integral Yoga Institute in New York City.

The show is based on Yogesvara’s (Joshua Greene’s) 2006 book Here Comes the Sun, which briefly hit Amazon.com’s bestseller list, and was published in five foreign languages.

“There are literally thousands of books that have been published about the Beatles, and a couple of hundred

Question: In CC Adi 17.167 Caitanya Mahaprabhu criticizes Islam as being illogical to Chand Kazi “There are many mistakes and illusions in your scriptures. Their compilers, not knowing the essence of knowledge, gave orders that were against reason and argument.” But in prior verse i.e. 166, he states ” Cow-killers are condemned to rot in hellish life for as many thousands of years as there are hairs on the body of the cow" which is even more illogical and unjust punishment by any standard of Ch

By Karnamrita Das

ENCOURAGING ONE ANOTHER TO STAY THE COURSE OF BHAKTI AND GO THROUGH THE INEVITABLE GROWING PAINS AND AND EVEN DEPRESSION plus A FREE VERSE RAMBLING, "FAILURE IS THE PILLAR OF SUCCESS": As I was waking up I was dreaming of having a conversation to encourage someone who was feeling discouraged and hopeless about their life and their practice of bhakti. I like to think that I write to encourage devotees or in general, the spiritually minded, to have a positive attitude in spite of

By Madhava Smullen 

Three months after the category 4 Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico on September 20th, the U.S. territory’s infrastructure is still far from recovered. Only 20 per cent of traffic lights are powered; forty per cent of Puerto Ricans, especially in the countryside, are still without electricity, and many have barely any running water.

This includes the U.S. territory’s only ISKCON temple, which had its roof, veranda and porch ripped off in the storm. Devotees are still st

By Patita Pavana das Adhikary

A condensed version of the following essay about HH (108) Shridhar Swami was read at a recent Vyasa Puja in Mumbai celebrated by his disciples…

In his diaries, HH Indradyumna Maharaja writes that Shridhar Swami trained him up in his early days of sannyasa. However, even though I’m light years from a sannyasi, I received the best guidance from him because I was fixed up by Shridhar Swami in Kirtan Sagar.

It was soon after Shrila Prabhupada departed for Vaikuntha—ju

If you really want to see iskcon a lot stronger than it is at present, and if you are ready to take part in a grassroots revolution, here is a program for you. It is non-political and non-controversial, easy to implement, and with negligible cost, yet it will benefit the whole society of devotees worldwide. The program is that all members of the Krsna consciousness movement should read all of Srila Prabhupada’s books.

Of course, many devotees are already reading Prabhupada’s books, but still, f